


Soul's brews

by Dagda16



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Consensual Underage Sex, Discrimination, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:48:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28037190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dagda16/pseuds/Dagda16
Summary: Ezreal is a high school student, famous for being particularly committed when he wants something. One day he stops by Pinches, a vastaya teahouse where he meets Sett, the pupil of the owner.Ezreal's knows almost nothing about tea, but he's sure he will be a proper employee, if only Sett could be his boss.
Relationships: Ezreal/Sett (League of Legends)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	1. Flavors

Ezreal had thought of applying as an attendant at  _ Pinches  _ for the whole month before the summer break, and on his last day of school, he finally took his resume to the owner.

He hoped she wouldn't ask him why a high school student wanted so much that vacancy, and she didn't do it. Moreover, it was so unusual for a human to work in a vastaya shop.

The reason why Ezreal was so motivated was very simple, and very pathetic to state out loud. During a rainy day in October, he happened to stop at  _ Pinches _ , both because the place was very appealing and because Ezreal wanted so much a cup of tea. Once inside, he had seen the most fascinating vastaya ever.

Since that moment, Ezreal couldn't stop passing by  _ Pinches  _ every single day, but except for some rare moments where Sett asked him what he wanted or what he could do for him, Ezreal hadn't been able to approach him in any more intimate way.

After almost a month, he realized he didn't have enough money to stop by and order something every afternoon, and his uncle wouldn't lend him money for such a futile reason as meeting his crush. A crush who didn't even know about Ezreal's interest in him, and this was the pathetic part.

Luckily, the day he went talking with Mrs Latorre was also Sett's rest day. Being judged by him would be the worst, Ezreal was a very talkative person under pressure, and even though this could be good, in his case this involved terrible consequences, almost always.

_ Pinches  _ was a traditional wooden building with a strong oriental style. The external walls were painted in red and green, a series of rounded windows let people see inside. A small black and red paifang at the entrance was there to welcome people, often decorated with red lanterns.

Inside, the main tea room contained maybe a dozen tables, and all sorts of tea related objects were exposed on the furniture along the walls. For sure, since the building had more than just the ground floor, there must be more rooms upstairs, but probably they were a private area.

Ezreal observed the shelves behind the counter, and the amount of different bowls and jars, the pots and the cups, and his eyes stopped on the desserts showcase. He wasn’t sure about their provenance, but every time he had tasted them, he had found them pretty good and fresh.

A cough took Ezreal back to reality.

"Are you sure you want this job?" Mrs Latorre asked, settling her glasses on her nose. She glanced at the resume once again.

"Yes, ma'am."

"I've seen you here before. What do you know about tea, my boy?"

Ezreal smiled. "Besides, I like it?"

"Of course."

"Well, not much, to be honest, but I can learn."

"I'm not looking for another attendant at the moment, I couldn't pay you."

Ezreal didn’t expect that twist. "I can work without payment. I mean, I can be your apprentice, ma'am."

"And also, you're human. You know better than me how much this could be awkward for the customers."

"Times change, Mrs Latorre. I don't really care about what people think, if they want to be some retrograde idiots, it's their business."

Mrs Latorre checked his resume again, paying more attention than before, apparently. "I see you like history. Very good, our profession is imbued with history and traditions. But I need your parents' permission, so if I can talk with them..."

"Oh, well-" Ezreal bit his tongue. "To be honest, I don't see my parents since... I can't even remember, they're quite busy. But I can ask my uncle, I don't think he'll have something to say back."

Mrs Latorre remained silent for a while, thoughtfully. "Very well, you can start from Monday onwards. Take your uncle here first."

Ezreal held a sigh, stood up and hugged Mrs Latorre, almost making her smoking pipe fall. She didn't seem too much upset, but her fox ears folded backwards.

"We'll talk about your enthusiasm, too, kiddo." she sentenced, but on her lips a smile opened up.

Once at home, Ezreal let his voice out in a sequence of victorious screams. His uncle appeared in the hall, bewildered but not so surprised about his nephew's behavior. "I guess you had a good day, Ezreal."

"I found a job. Well, it doesn't pay for now, but-"

"A job? What's under that?" his uncle had a surprised smirk on his face.

Ezreal smirked too. He knew his uncle knew him better than anyone else, he couldn’t play the responsibility card with him. "Heh... a boy."

His uncle laughed. "Ah, yes, I was that bold too when I was young. Where, then?"

" _ Pinches _ . It's that vastaya's teahouse on Velikij Road."

His uncle adjusted his tie, he seemed about going out for a walk. "Vastayas, eh? Keep your eyes open, you could learn a thing or two from them."

"Mrs Latorre wants to speak with you. Because I’m a minor, and a human, and all that kind of boring stuff."

"Very well... is she attractive?"

"... it's your type, old man." chirped Ezreal, while going to his room. Now, all that he had to do was counting the days till Monday.

Mrs Latorre had sent him a message about the opening hour in the morning, but Ezreal was in front of the teahouse thirty minutes before. He was incredibly nervous, he knew Sett would have been there too, and probably that would have been the first time they could properly talk.

Mrs Latorre arrived ten minutes before, quite chilled in her red and yellow cheongsam, a pale pink fan in her left hand and the eternal smoking pipe in the right one.

Nearby her, like a titanic guardian, Sett was walking and chatting with the vastaya-lady.

Ezreal sat on the steps which led to the teahouse's door. His heart was racing like a bunny with a lot of foxes running behind it.

"You're here, very well." commented Mrs Latorre, closing her fan.

Sett looked at Ezreal with a fast glance, while taking out a small key from a pocket on his black-leather jacket.

"Have I seen you before?" he asked.

"W-well... I..." Ezreal coughed, trying to cover the sound of the heart in his own ears. "I often come here."

On Mrs Latorre’s face a smile appeared, making Ezreal think she was starting to understand what was really going on.

"Ezreal, I guess you already know Sett. He's the son of a very good friend of mine."

"Rooibos and matcha cookies. Am I right?" Sett smiled at Ezreal while opening the shop.

"Ah, yes, my fav. But maybe because I'm not brave enough to try all the flavors."

"There's nothing to be brave about: you like'em or not." Sett let Mrs Latorre inside and followed her. Ezreal entered and closed the door behind.

"Well, I tried some other flavors but... not here."

"Vastaya's tea is not like that dirty water you taste elsewhere." stated Sett, fiercely.

Ezreal didn't know how to reply, and simply waited to know his tasks.

While he was looking at Sett doing stuff, Mrs Latorre was observing him looking at Sett, a grin on her foxy face.

"My, my, when Sett started working here he was very young. Even younger than you, Ezreal."

"I was thirty, auntie."

"As I said, a child... he learned well. He'll be your guide here. I'm too old to stay here all day, but I'll check your progress, so learn well, boy." she pointed at Ezreal with her smoking pipe. Ezreal nodded, and went beyond the counter.

"Wait, you said you were thirty when you started to work here?" he asked.

Sett was arranging some jars full of leaves of different colours. "Yeah, why?"

"How fuc-erm, how old are you? I thought you were twenty or something."

Sett put a tag on one of the jars. "Vastayas don't grow up like humans. The lifespan of a vastaya can be four or five times the human one, or even longer than that."

Ezreal tried to contain his disappointment.

"However, for humans it's like I'm twenty. This is one of the reasons they think vastayas are... well, humans think a lot of shitty stuff about vastayas, actually. My mother knows something about this." Sett seemed suddenly upset, but the veil of anger which covered his face went away as fast as he finished to cram the tea jars.

"Well, it's better to start teaching you the trade secrets. Ready, boy?" Sett opened a drawer and took out two black aprons.

Ezreal wore its own at once, and nodded energetically. "Ready, boss."

Sett smirked. "Not yet, but..."

"One day, Sett." Mrs Latorre looked at him like a mother would look at her child.

Ezreal understood immediately that something very intimate was going on between the two vastayas. Mrs Latorre had given him the vibes of somebody who had suffered a lot in her life, since the first time Ezreal had seen her.

"First lesson: serve your guests. You don't want them to have a bad experience and wasting their tea time, so learn how to avoid all of this. Remember the faces, remember the voices, remember the flavors."

"Are you able to remember all your guests with this method?"

"I also use my olfaction, but you don't have such a thing. I associate the smell of a person with the tea they want the most. This works just with the patrons, as you might imagine."

Ezreal took out a little notepad from his bag. "Can I use one of these?"

"Yeah but learn how to have your hands free." Sett put a finger inside the pocket of Ezreal's apron. "These are discrete for a reason." he said, and took out a handkerchief from his own apron's pocket, in order to rapidly clean the countertop.

"I'll show you the basic stuff you need."

The little bell at the door rang, and a couple of girls came in. They chose a table and sat, immediately starting to chat and browse the menu.

"Oolong and masala chai. The blond one always asks for mint leaves and a slice of cherry cake." murmured Sett, starting to prepare everything.

"But they are still choosing." replied Ezreal, confused.

"Yeah, a lot of people browse the menu but then they take the usual."

Ezreal observed him for the rest of the day. Mrs Latorre went away before the closure, without saying a word, and at the end of the day Ezreal helped Sett closing the teahouse.

"Tired?" Sett asked, while turning the key in the lock.

"Not really. I'm impressed, you really have a good memory."

"I'm just used to this job. You'll learn too, as long as you’ll be here."

Ezreal tried to keep a thought for himself, but at least it came out. "Does my presence disturb you? You don't seem to get along well with humans, am I right?"

Sett looked at him, surprised. "It's not like I hate every single human. But I'd lie if I tell you it's totally ok for me to work side by side with one of them. It's nothing personal, I'm sure you are sweet and soft. I just need time to get used to you."

Ezreal was not famous for his think-before-doing way, and he realized hugging him was a bad idea just after having done it. But Sett patted him on the head and rested a hand on his back.

"Do you want to eat something?" he asked.

Ezreal nodded, his heart was about to explode. "You." he whispered, sure that Sett didn't hear him, then nodded.

"I take you somewhere, then. You still have a lot to learn." the vastaya said. "And I don't think I'm so good to eat, you know..." he added, embarrassed.

Ezreal blushed, but it was too late. He shook his shoulders and just followed him until his motorbike.


	2. Halves

Ezreal had heard a lot of stories about the Vastaya's District, but he didn't find it so sketchy and dangerous as many people told him. It was a colorful mess of houses built one over the other, tall buildings covered in lanterns and charms, staircases with a mysterious destination, bizarre statues and ceremonial arches, bridges on labyrinthine canals. It was a kaleidoscope of warm lights and geometrical shapes.

Amused, Ezreal couldn't stop looking around while Sett was taking him through the streets. A rich food smell was soaking the air, and when the two arrived where Sett wanted to, Ezreal realized he couldn't get any single one of the symbols written on the ensigns and the posters around him.

"Are you sure I can be here?" the boy asked, suddenly feeling out of place. The feeling was different from the uncomfort, but Ezreal felt like he had to hide.

Sett, on the contrary, was totally at ease. "Well, yeah. I wouldn't take you in a risky place."

"It's just... I don't see any other human here. So I supposed... we are not welcome."

"Humans don't come here when the sun goes down. You know, they're convinced we change into monsters and shit like that. I'm pretty sure I've always been quite a beast, you know."

Sett laughed and showed his fangs and biceps. Actually, his teeth were not so sharp and poignant, but the difference with the human ones was evident.

Ezreal blushed, remembering the scene shortly before. "I-I'm sorry. You know, for what I said… about eating you."

Sett shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I assume you're a cannibal or something. Or you wanted to flatter me with a terrible result."

"It's just... you're kind to me. And you don't have to."

"Why not?"

"You don't get along well with humans, do you?"

Sett sat at the table and waited for Ezreal to be seated too. "I don't get along well with humans who approach us with the aim of hurting, raping or insulting us. I told you: I don't have these vibes for you. And auntie too."

"You really love her, right?"

Sett paused, he seemed unsure on how to reply. "She and my mother are the only family I have, plus some friends. Now people are used to me, but when I was young, a half-vastaya would have hard times."

Ezreal felt so stupid, but he had to say it out loud. "I didn't get it. But I don't know much about your people." he admitted, looking down nervously.

"It's ok. Humans will always look at me seeing a vastaya, vastayas will always look at me seeing a human." Sett replied, and Ezreal could hear a tone of sorrow in his voice.

He coughed, finally finding the courage to look into his eyes. "I don't want you to talk about this if that makes you feel bad."

"It doesn't. It's my life, however, I can't hide under a rock. Moreover, here vastayas are different from where my mother is from. She had to leave her family and life after... me."

"So, you leave here..."

"Yeah. I'm going to college, but it's a bit different from the human ones. Since we live way more, colleges are a sort of life path, and they have different goals. Buuuut... why don't we talk about you?" Sett opened the menu and started to browse it.

"Are you one of those customers who check the menu and then takes the usual?" Ezreal tried to move the topic to something less touchy. With a lump in his throat, Ezreal skimmed the dishes, but even if he already had some of them, many were quite mysterious.

Sett smiled, the warm orange eyes glanced at the guest. "Well, I have my faves, but I like to change sometimes. You seem lost… I assure you food is delicious here."

"Recommend me something. I tried just three or four of these dishes, everything with shrimp and bamboo would be great for me, but... I trust you."

"Well, then..." Sett rang the bell at the center of the table and waited. In a couple of minutes, a tiger vastaya arrived.

He seemed breathless, probably he was running around the whole evening. "Hey Sett. You have a guest, uh?" the tiger took out a little notepad and a pen. "Ready."

"We’ll take shabu-shabu. The Hundreds Dragons one."

The tiger looked at him, then he glanced at Ezreal and went back on Sett. "Are you joking?"

"No."

"Well... I suppose you want the right liquor with that."

"No, just jasmine tea. We will have some jiaozi, too. The Rainbow ones. And shrimps, plenty." Sett put his hand as if he was showing the right largeness of the shrimps dish.

The tiger nodded and wrote down the order, then rapidly disappeared.

Ezreal waited until they were alone again. "Sett... why did you take me here? It seems such an expensive place."

"If you plan to work with vastayas, you must know them. So, this is your first very approach. And also, I wanted to know you."

"I'm just a regular high school student... I want to become an archaeologist, one day."

"That explains many things."

"Such as...?"

"Your open mind. And your uncle's too. I was there when auntie talked with him."

"Well, I don't want to belittle vastayas' situation, but I can say that not many people of my age see your people as the previous generations do. And actually..." Ezreal stopped himself from being too direct to him about his feelings.

He wasn't exactly smart about relationships, but he was sure that telling him "I like you" in that very moment wasn't the best of the ideas. So, he just shrugged his shoulders and glanced at the waiter who brought them the tea.

"How's tea here?" Ezreal asked, trying to change the topic.

"Good, their supplier is the same as ours. But they don't have all the variety, just two or three."

Their dinner arrived after a bit, Ezreal didn't waste time and started eating some shrimp. Sett remained silent for a bit, eating and thinking, then he suddenly grabbed a jiaozi with the chopsticks and approached it to Ezreal's face.

"I took the Rainbow ones 'cause each is filled differently. This has beef and onion."

Ezreal blushed heavily. He bit the jiaozi without saying anything, but hardly swallowed it when Sett ate the other half of the jiaozi.

"It's why they are quite big. We always share. Do you mind?"

"No. Not at all." Ezreal chirped, maybe too loudly.

Sett didn't seem to be bothered by his attitude. He kept offering him half of the jiaozi, everytime explaining their flavors: spiced beans, sweet beans, grilled vegetables, marinated fish, clams, bittersweet chicken, honey and duck, and many more. He also showed him how to properly eat shabu-shabu.

Ezreal knew it was frigging expensive when the waiter brought the meat with a cart and made them choose their slices.

Ezreal started to feel full after a couple of huge mushrooms and three slices of meat, but he didn't want to disappoint Sett.

In the end, he sipped what was remaining of his jasmine tea, after one of the better dinners he had in his whole life.

Set glanced at the clock. "I have to drive you home. It's almost ten."

Ezreal nodded, and took out his wallet, but Sett stopped him. "You're my guest."

Then, the half-vastaya went to the cash desk, before Ezreal could say anything else.

Once outside the restaurant, Ezreal felt like he had to talk. "I thought it was a date, at first."

"I'm a bit too old for you." Sett replied, with a smile on his face.

"I don't think so." Ezreal sat behind him on the motorcycle, grabbing his hips. For the entire ride duration, they didn't speak, Ezreal just remained hooked on him, enjoying the warmth of his back.

In twenty minutes, they were in front of Ezreal's house.

"Well, see you tomorrow, then." Sett said,the shadow of a smile on his face.

"Yeah. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Ezreal had the instinct of hugging him, but in the end he changed his mind. "Have a quiet night, Sett." he just said, before turning to his home's door. Once inside, he felt so unexpectedly tired he just went to his bed, let down his bag and shoes and fell asleep.

The next days, Mrs Latorre spent more and more time in the teahouse, supervising Ezreal. Her smirk kept emerging now and then, especially when she was convinced nobody was looking at her.

Ezreal got used to Mrs Latorre and Sett's habits quickly. He didn't expect they would trust him anytime soon, but he felt he was bounding with them a bit.

On Ezreal's second Monday, Mrs Latorre didn't show up at the teahouse, apparently she had some business elsewhere, and Sett seemed quite nervous. He arrived to open the shop a bit late.

"Sorry, I... I had to fix something. Ready for today? I'm showing you the tea room, where we keep our stocks. And not just that, but there are more secrets than you know, in this teahouse." Sett opened the door and went in.

Ezreal helped him lighting up, setting the tables, sweeping. He was starting to enjoy those little actions before the opening, he didn't know if that was because of Sett's presence or simply because he liked the job more than he thought.

"Do you mind wearing a traditional dress for the job?" Sett asked, while he was arranging the dessert dishes in the showcase.

"Not really."

"Then, I'll go buying you one."

"Sett... can I ask... I mean... is Mrs Latorre rich?"

"Well, not really. I mean, if she were, she would have paid you to work here. But I got why you ask: she handles a lot of money, a lot of people come here..." Sett opened a drawer and took out some kneaded incense boxes, then chose a plum one and put the pearls in a heather.

"She used to have a lot of money, in her golden days, but when she married her husband, her family drained her richness. She wasn't allowed to have that money anymore. Luckily, her husband was very rich, but there's a law... well, I shouldn't tell, but auntie was married to a human. And the laws, back to those days, weren't like today's ones, so once her husband died, she didn't inherit a single cent from him. It was forbidden... but it was almost a hundred and fifty years ago. Since she had started this activity way before her husband passed away, this building, this business and also her gains remained hers until now. Also, nobody tried to take all of this away from her, because according to the popular beliefs, stealing from a vastaya brings only misfortune to those who do that."

Sett paused, then looked at the door and, when he seemed sure nobody was arriving, he went closer to Ezreal. "I'm helping her, but she doesn't know. I don't do exactly normal stuff to gain money, but... when I was younger, being a half-vastaya was not easy, especially if you wanted a well paid job, so... I started doing something my mother and auntie wouldn't approve."

Ezreal gulped, then his mouth spoke before he could think, as usual: "Are you a prostitute?" he asked, in a whisper, as if he wouldn't be heard by the tea jars.

Sett burst into laughter. "Oh, gods, no. No, that's a very sophisticated job, in the vastaya community."

Ezreal felt like a stone was removed from over his heart. Shit, he was jealous... how pathetic, again.

"You don't need to tell me, I mean... I feel like you're trusting me a bit too much."

"Well, you seem somebody I can trust. And I didn't really tell you serious stuff, either." Sett went near the door and lightened up the neon sign outside of the teahouse, before turning the cardboard from "close" to "open".

"Ok, let's start your training. First lesson: types of tea. How many do you know?"

“Not so many but… black tea, green tea, and the red one. I’ve tried some varieties of fruity tea, also.”

“Ok, then, let me tell you.” Sett took a jar full of leaves. “Tea is what we have after the treatment of a specific plant. The different types are just different treatments. It is important to know this because this affects the intensity of the flavor.”

The half-vastaya opened the jar and gave it to Ezreal. “Smell it, you need to learn how to recognize the basic aroma of tea types. It’s not essential for the work but it’s useful if you want to recognize the good one from the absolutely terrible one. I know your olfactory is not as sharp as the vastaya’s, but after some time you’ll be able to tell the difference. Plus, vastaya tea is made from a variant of the Camellia sinensis, this causes tea to be especially intense even in the mild and soft varieties. Well, compared to the  _ normal  _ ones, I mean.”

Ezreal smelled the tea, and for some seconds didn’t say anything. It was the first time for him to taste the scent of the raw leaves, the times he ordered his rooibos, they were already infused. For sure, it was interesting.

He noticed some scars on Sett’s fingers, and on his wrists too, but decided not to ask. On one hand, he was glad he was opening up to him, on the other one… he was terribly tempted to ask him everything about his life.

It was the first crush Ezreal had, he had a girlfriend in middle school and another during the first months of high school, but in both cases, they had confessed to him and he had simply accepted to go on dates and to do stuff with them. In both cases, they left him because, despite the good looking and the extrovert behavior, Ezreal wasn’t apparently the best person to spend time with on so many occasions. He was loud, inappropriate, too physical, too honest. And to be completely honest, he wasn’t really able to keep himself outside of troubles.

That job was the first responsible action of his life, and he didn’t want to disappoint Mrs Latorre, nor he wanted to give Sett the impression of being somebody not worthy of trust.

He kept writing down new information, but then some customers arrived. When he was one of them, he was also too distracted observing Sett in the most discreet way he could, to notice a series of actions and details that now were so important.

The half-vastaya approached the table, and with a soft voice asked what they wanted. Those people were new, and apparently not so confident with the concept of a vastaya teahouse. Ezreal couldn’t blame them, the first time he had tried the place, it was for pure emergency.

It was rainy outside, he didn’t have an umbrella and the bus wasn’t arriving for a breakdown, moreover he had his phone out of battery to call his uncle. That was the first time he saw Sett, in a traditional green dress and a red makeup around the eyes. It was not the first vastaya he had ever seen, but for some reason, his look appealed to him so much, and his ways too. Perhaps because, despite the size of him, he was really elegant.

Sett came back to the counter, the order’s paper in a hand. “Now, observe.” he said, before grabbing three jars and approaching the kettle. While the water was boiling, Sett started measuring the correct amount of leaves necessary for each cup.

“Have you ever seen a tea ceremony, Ez?” he asked, with a soft voice.

“No. But I’ve never seen somebody asking for that, here.”

“It is something you need to ask for before coming here. There’s a whole procedure you can’t ignore.” Sett put the leaves inside some small rounded infusers. “I’d teach you a lot of things but I suppose you’ll stay with us only during summer holidays, so-”

“No!” Ezreal interrupted him. “No, I was just… thinking about it, and I… well, it’s not a bad idea to have a job during school. I’ll not be able to be here during the morning, but...”

“I’ll take care of it. To be honest, Mrs Latorre was thinking about moving inside the ryokan, to take care of the teahouse when I can’t be here. However, why are you working here if we can’t pay you?”

Ezreal blushed and tried to find a believable lie, but he was terrible at it, and when he finally could find a sort of story, Sett was already figuring out something. The half-vastaya put the infusers inside the cups, his face was gloomy.

He avoided any more conversation until the customers finished their tea and paid. When the place was empty again, Sett turned to Ezreal and crossed his arms on the chest. “Well?” he asked. He didn’t seem upset, but Ezreal noticed an impatient shade in his voice.

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why?”

Ezreal felt so frustrated he couldn’t avoid to reply in an irritated tone: “Is it important?”

Sett’s orange eyes shined of a dark light. “I’d like you to be honest with me as much as I’m being honest with you.”

“You didn’t tell me what you do to gain money outside of here.” Ezreal tried to move the focus, but his strategy was one of the worst, and that look was in part frightening, in part… exciting.

“Well, it’s not something that affects you. While I’d like to know if you’re here just because of a lost bet or something.”

“I just liked you and I wanted to work here.” Ezreal replied, trying to sound more confident as he could, but he was blushing as hell.

Sett’s face was so confused. Before he could say anything, some people came in.

In the next hours, talking became almost impossible, and Sett only explained to Ezreal how to serve the customers or clean the pots, checking sometimes if he was doing a good job.

When the last day’s customer went away, the half-vastaya started to clean, without a word.

Ezreal took the broom and started to sweep, but there was a dense tension in the air. “Are you upset?” he asked.

“No.” replied Sett, and surprisingly he seemed sincere.

“I’m sorry.”

“It was a date.” Sett sat on a chair. “I… lied. It was meant to be a date, but I couldn’t ask you out. Not so directly.”

“Why not?”

Sett flapped a hand as if he wanted to dispel an awful smell. “People. I know what people might think, and… I also didn’t want to scare you.”

“You don’t scare me. You’re thick, but docile.”

“Yeah, here. With auntie, with you… I fight, that’s what I do to help this place and my family. I have to split my life, and I don’t want you to have a distorted idea of who I am.”

Ezreal gulped the news, but the idea of Sett punching jaws was near to an erotic dream, somehow. “I still like you. Even though I don’t know you that well.”

“I’m fortyfive, Ez.”

“So what? It’s like you’re twenty or something.”

Sett burst into a short laugh, then a sad smirk. “But people will know I’m not actually twenty or something.” his voice became shaky.

“If you care so much about what people might say, then forget this whole fucking conversation.” Ezreal replied, and he was sweeping so strongly that the broom’s bristles were making a violent  _ schak schak _ on the floor.

Sett took the cups from the tables. “Would your family be ok with that?”

“... I guess so.”

“You guess?”

“They’re not racist, or… well, maybe they have some prejudices, but we all have them. You had them, too.”

Sett stayed silent. “What if they find out I fight?” he asked, after a while.

“We don’t need to tell them. It’s your business, and you do it to help this place.”

“Are you sure you like me?”

Ezreal opened his arms, looking above as if he was looking for a helping angel. “I’m working free for you.” he said, exasperated.

Sett nodded, persuaded. He finished cleaning all the pottery, then stopped on the door, waiting for Ezreal.

“Do you… want to see my place?”

Ezreal felt a warm sensation in his stomach, and immediately his mind ran at the hottest possible scenario.

“You mean…?”

Sett closed the eyes, trying not to laugh. “I mean: I want to show you where my house is. If you need a place, my house is open for you.”

Ezreal hid his disappointment. “Oh, sure.”

“We have time for… other stuff.” Sett murmured, while escorting him to his motorbike.

On Ezreal’s face, a mischievous smile appeared, while riding the bike right behind the half-vastaya.


End file.
